Picking Up The Pieces
by ImagingThings
Summary: Robin Hood is dead but his spirit lives on. Now it's up to those remaining to pick up the pieces and continue the fight he started.


The group stood for a moment looking at the grave of their fallen friend and leader, four men and a girl; united in a fight against injustice, a fight which had been started by the man who now lay buried in the ground. Robin Hood was dead but as long as those people standing there lived, the fight he had started would continue. They had buried him beneath the small bush which on the day when he had returned to Locksley with Much, such a long time ago, had bloomed with white flowers.

Without any words they returned to the camp. Locksley Manor was Archer's now and with both Vaisey and Isabella gone it would have been completely safe for the gang to return to Robin's old house. However, after much of Nottingham had been destroyed Archer had given the Manor to the townspeople to live in. He had claimed that would have been what Robin would have wanted, and of course they all knew he was right.

"How _can _we move on?" It was Much who asked the question but in a way, deep within their hearts, they were all wondering the same. As they stood in the camp they all felt it; the beginning of the end hadn't been in the castle, it had been here, in the camp which for so long had been their home, when they had doubted Allan and tied him up before going to the castle.

"We can because we have to." Tuck was right, they had to. Yes, Vaisey and Isabella had been dealt with but Prince John hadn't and now King Richard was being held hostage in Austria. No, this little group, only John and Much remaining of the original gang, couldn't just give up, Kate had been right; Robin wouldn't have wanted them to give up, he would have wanted them to continue the fight. It would be tough, they knew that, but it wouldn't be impossible, nothing was impossible as long as just one person fought for it.

Taking something to drink, they all sat down on the various bunks in the camp. It was their home; the place where they had laughed and cried and planned various attacks and raids on the castle. Yet it wasn't as much the place which made it home, it was the company.

"For Robin." John lifted his mug and they all did the same.

"For Robin!"

"For Guy!"

"For Allan!"

"For Marian!"

"For Carter!"

"For LeGrand!"

"For Edward!"

"For Dan!"

"For Tom!"

"For Roy!"

One by one they mentioned each of their friends. Of course Archer and Kate only knew Robin, Guy and Allan; in fact Archer barely knew Allan and Kate hadn't exactly been _friends _with Guy.

Soon they all fell asleep, exhausted by the events of the day, exhausted by grief and weariness. They all felt perfectly safe in the camp, protected by the various traps Will had build, and even without the traps they would be safe; after all, most of the soldiers had died in the blast. But even if they hadn't had the traps and the soldiers hadn't all died the entire gang would still have slept; they were simply too exhausted to do anything else.

The next morning they began the hard task of properly re-housing the townspeople, even though Archer insisted that people could live in the Locksley Manor as long as necessary it still wasn't anywhere near big enough for all those who had lost their homes. Luckily the people from the surrounding villages had almost all volunteered to have some of the townspeople living with them, even if they weren't family or friends, even if it meant living under crowded conditions. Only those families who couldn't possibly fit _one _more person into their homes hadn't opted to have people living, and with some living in Locksley Manor and some in Bonchurch they people from Nottingham had soon all found lodging. But there was another task which was just as important; cleaning up. None of the gang felt like they could ask the people to help, not after all they had been through, but it soon became clear that the people _wanted _to help so in a short time every grown man from Nottingham and the surrounding villages were busy with hauling stones out of the town. When some of the younger boys became frustrated with not being able to lift as much as the men Kate quickly arranged them into carrying out the smaller pieces. At noon the women, having all prepared something in their own homes and carried the food outdoor, called and they all ate together. Then they continued working until the light was so dim that Tuck declared it was pointless to keep working. Saying goodbye to everyone the gang returned to the camp where they were met by a surprise; there were people inside the camp, two persons, one a great deal taller than the other, sitting in the shadows.

"How did you get past the traps?" Kate asked suspiciously.

"I _made _the traps!" the taller person stepped into the light, revealing his face.

"Will?!" Much and John spoke as if with one mouth. Will looked exactly like he had done when they had left Acre, only was he more tanned now from being outdoor in the burning sun.

"Will Scarlett?! The carpenter's son?" this time it was Kate who spoke, she had known Will when they were children, back in the days when things had been better, when Edward, not Vaisey, had been sheriff of Nottingham.

"Yes, Kate, it's me. Only I'm not 'the carpenter's son' anymore. My father died last year, which makes me the carpenter of Nottinghamshire."

"I'm sorry. But, who's that?"

It was only Kate, Archer and Tuck who didn't know by now who the other person was, both Much and John knew _perfectly _well who it was. And sure enough; smiling Djaq stepped forward and stood besides Will who lovingly slipped an arm around her.

"This is my wife Djaq."

Her hair was longer now; hanging down just below her shoulders, but she was still clearly the same old Djaq as she had always been, the clothing she had worn in Acre once again being replaced by something more suitable for travelling and living in the woods.

"Where's Robin?"

"And Allan?"

"I'm sorry." It was John who broke the silence. "Robin and Allan are… dead."

Tears welled up in Djaq's eyes and she buried her face in Will's chest, carefully he led her over and sat down with her on one of the bunks.

"Tell us everything." He said, "everything which happened since you returned."

And they did. They told everything, not leaving out any details which they might feel bad about. When Djaq heard that Archer was the half-brother of both Robin and Guy, Guy who in the end had joined the gang, she looked directly at him.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. "I know how much it hurts to lose a brother. Losing two brothers in the same day, two brothers you have only just met, that must have been terrible."

"You had a brother?" Kate asked.

"My twin brother, Djaq. It's his name I am carrying now."

"So," Much asked, "What do people call you?"

"Most people call me Saffiya and of course Will had to call me that too when we were with other people. But when we're alone he just calls me Djaq." She chuckled lightly "Sometimes I feel like we weren't _really _married because I obviously had to use Saffiya."

Then Will and Djaq began telling their story. How they had lived in Acre where Will soon had found work as a carpenter while had diverted her time between taking care of Bassim's birds and fixing people's wounds if they asked her to. When King Richard had decided to return to England Will and Djaq had accompanied him together with his army. They were the only two who had escaped the attack and subsequent captured of the King, continuing on to England and Nottingham on their own.

"Let us sleep." Tuck declared. "Tomorrow will be a hard day."

Yes it would. But they were all ready for it; they had lost friends and gained new ones many times over the years and even though Robin Hood was dead his spirit lived on in the seven people sleeping peacefully in their camp, their home.


End file.
